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Dr. Thomas
Brehm*
Pictures tell stories - but which?
I met Mehmet Ünal several years
ago when I was searching for
photographs about the life of foreign
minorities in Germany for the “House
of the history of the Federal Republic
of Germany” in Bonn. During my first
meeting in Mainz I wanted to get an
overview about his work.
To be able to dispose for my buying
suggestion, I asked him according to
his financial images. I will never forget
his answer: ”At first we should create
a personal base”. He wanted me to
estimate the value of his work for the
museum, after that everything else
would be regulated by itself.
This was what exactly happened.
I believe, at that time I have received
an insight into the foundation of
Ünal’s photographic work founds.
He owns a deep personal, intellectual
as well as very emotional relation to
his pictures and the people whose
personality and life they document
in sections. And there is probably a
deeper reason, why he does not
do photographing for his main job.
This relation to the photography
is pure luxury in a time that has
moved the usability of pictures
thus in the foreground.
However, as his own principal he
uses the chance to receive scenes
and portraits that own a high
explanatory power and urgency
for the future generations without
taking consideration to public taste
and press explanatory power and
touching urgency.
While we met during the last
years, Mehmet Ünal always reported
about his newest projects and plans
for the future; he was enthusiastic,
but always disbelieving whether
already the right approach was
found.
And, besides that, of course, we
spoke about the essence of the
photography, his models, his
photographic ethos. A question
which has occupied us over and
over again was how a good
picture could be shot.
What actually happens when
the trigger is pressed just at
that moment which later confirms
that it was the right one. Certainly
there are different approaches to
the photography.
There are, on one hand, the motorised
experts. They try to circle with high
material supply and high concentration
to capture the determining moment
like a hunter and with the photo-
laboratory work they filter it out.
On the other hand, there are the
economical ones either advance by
complex preparation for the actual
photographing-time economically,
or through intensively observation
and meeting with the actual situation
with a relatively low amount of
material eternalize the happening.
Every photographer will learn during
his professional life carrier how to
discover his own right strategy to
approach to the optimal result.
However, this is only one aspect
of the photographical technic.
Some go into raptures when they
talk aboutthe developments of the
newest apparatuses including the
possibilities of digital picture
treatment.
Some Others know about their
favourite apparatus only the technical
basic data without thinking further
whether this technically enlarged
look of the camera was to be
improved then.
It is enough for his requirement.
Both positions are legitimate and
can lead to equally high results,too.
Ünal has an undramatic relation to
the technology. He recognizes his
restrictions and uses the possibilities
that come up to him.
And, nevertheless, the relation to
the technical side of the photographs
also influence the relation of the
photographer to his picture.
He judges Which pictures are the
ones for holding on-worth?
Does he search pictures in the
world which represent his personal
image world?
Is he a picture seeker or a picture
finder? Which stories does he want to
tell to the viewers? Does he tell the
stories about the pictures or does he
tell his history in pictures?
Also here we know in the world of the
photography many examples which
search the visual expression of his/her
views for the time being in the reality
of the photo-shooting and find them.
Some whether they wait for the
determining moment patiently to
hold it in a fraction of one second,
some wait whether they produce
this picture expression by means
of the staging consciously steering.
And there are the big discoverers
who glide like strollers over the
world and stick what they judge for
tradition-worthy.
I believe, Ünal belongs to the picture
finders who know from their own
experience which pictures stand for
the bigger interconnection of the life
of Turks in Germany.
The picture of two street sweepers
from the year 1982 impress us more
about the social place of this work in
the consciousness of the German
middle class society as much more
than the radical sociological analyses.
And the picture of the unemployed
person's family of 1983 reflect the
whole range of hopes and
disappointments and the tension
of the life of many Turks in Germany.
It is common in Ünal’s pictures
that they tell on their own wise
stories – and also history. Besides,
his photographs tell his stories in a
very reserved way.
We, the viewers for whom the
photographers has shot the pictures,
have to show interest to the people
and their places in our society,
have interest to the people and their
stories, interest in a Turkish photographer
in Germany who has found " for the love
"the way from Istanbul to Mainz.
Nürnberg, 2001
*Dr. Thomas Brehm is a manager
of the KPZ in Nürnberg
Translated by Uschi Herzberger-Ünal
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